Study Skills: Citation Trails

Found a really relevant article on a topic you’re writing about? Want a quick way to find more?

Citation trails is a way of finding articles related to your relevant article.

Citation trails work in two directions: the articles that your relevant article has cited in it’s references/bibliography – backward citation trails, or articles that cited your relevant paper – forward citation trails.

Backward citation trails – when you have access to the article this is easy – it’s the references/bibliography at the end of the paper – search for those articles using Library Search tool on the Library homepage.

Forward citation trails – use Google Scholar by searching for your relevant article and clicking on the “cited by” for forward only citation trails,

For both forward and backward citation trails use Web of Science. Click on the article and you will get forward and backward citation trails on one page. Web of Science covers topics in ,criminology penology, social work and  sociology.

Important Reminder! Don’t pay for an article. Check to see if your library has it using Library Search and if not contact us and ask how to get an interlibrary loan.